Weekend Pleasures & Pains

I do like my alternate two day weekends, they seem so much longer than the other ones, although I do try to get away from work by mid afternoon on the working Saturdays. This weekend Alice and I went up to Kent Ridge Park for a walk on Saturday morning, leaving George still lazing at home. We took a stroll along the canopy walk which is not all that long, being about 300m I'd guess, and yet is immense fun. Too much fun in a way since as we chatted and ambled I forgot to take any pictures. Still we have definitely agreed to walk there again so there may be some appearing in the near future.

In the afternoon we were off to the Esplanade where George was to perform with others from his music classes. Most of the Asians seemed nervous, but he had no visible qualms, although he did perform inunsmiling mode. I suggested to him afterwards that a smile would help and also that a check of the zip was best carried out before coming on stage. Just for a moment he wondered if he had played while providing an exciting additional view for the audience, but he knows me too well to be fooled for long. He can be seen (minus smile) above. While a great lad he does not actually have a halo, it is just a reflected light just above his head.

Sunday was less good. I woke with some small pains in the stomach and not only that the bowels failed me. An ominous start to the day. However Alice and I set off for the Botanical Gardens where we had a wonderful walk. Alice had brought her video so we wandered through the Evolution Garden taking shots and enjoying ourselves. Then to the fruits and the lake with the black swans, where we added more memories. Here Alice is inspecting a lizard that seemed to want to be friendly.

For me the highlight was videoing Alice shoeless and tottering on the reflexology path. I managed to get a gentleman striding barefoot on the sharper stones to show the difference with Alice's wimpout on the rounder ones. Mind you, anyone seeing the video will, just seconds later, be able to see me really wimping out as I kept my shoes on!

However by then the stomach was being rather unpleasant and we decided that instead of the intended visit to the Seafood place at UE Square we would go back to Zi Yean to get plenty of fibre through me. You can see that Alice was not unhappy with the decision, here she is steaming into a "signature dish" of whole chicken in Chinese wine. It was great, and I was firing into peas and scallops, which gave plenty of fibre to ensure that Monday at work I will not be in pain (mind you, pretty knackered). Unfortunately the rest of the day was spent clutching a hot water bottle to the stomach to reduce the pain. However listening to Nigel Planar reading "Guards, Guards" was quite fun when I was able to concentrate.